My Dad has been here in So. NV for 20 years now,( grew up in Dormont, and Brentwood) and he although he doesn't use the words anymore, its just the way his accent is now....he still has that back "east drawl"....

Well, I really do not know about all of that. But I do know that, even though I feel as though I have lost most of my SouthEast Texas Drawl, others pick mine up rather quickly.

Since I give briefings quite a bit, I would really catch hell when I first came in the Navy. One of my Senior Chiefs would constantly remind me to use ALL of the standard syllables of a word......"do not add any, do not take any away!"

We have a bad habit of adding syllables to words, but merging words together. In defense, I say "We are just intelligent enough to get the same meaning across with less effort expended!"

Now, after two tours in Japan, a tour in the Philippines, 3 tours in California, a tour in Maine, and an inordinate amount of time overseas (mainly East Asia and the Middle East), I feel as though my Texian is pretty muddled and screwed up. I often catch myself using sentences that consist of words from multiple languages. About the only ones that can understand me are the Navy Old Farts.

But now that I am in Southern Mississippi, some of it is creeping back in.

It's funny how many dialects actually exist in Texas. East/Southeast Drawl, Central TX Twang (very similar to the West TX dialect), and the poor souls that live in the panhandle........poor people sound like Oklahomans (pity, pity).

__________________"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." -Ambrose Redmoon.

I wasn't sure where to put this thread so I thought the "Fans United" area was best.

I haven't lived in the Pittsburgh area since I went off to college in 1987. Today as I watched the NFL Films show about Stiller fans again I thought to myself... "I used to talk like that."

So here's my question for you fans that have moved away.... Do you still sound like a Pittsburgher?

Occasionally I will let rip with some phrase or word pronounciation that will spin the heads of those around me.

I still say::

dahntahn
gumbans
slippy
yinz
worsh
nebby
red up
n'at
chipped ham ( I love goin to the deli and asking for "a pahn a chipped ham". They look at me like I got 2 heads.

Oh... I still drop most of the "to be"s from sentences. There's just so much of the dialect that I don't use anymore. It saddens me a bit.

A while back I was talking to someone for the first time and they asked if I was from western PA. I said yes of course and asked how she knew. She said I sounded like it. I took that as a huge compliment.

My other question:: If you could move back, would you?

If I could afford to I would move back in a heartbeat. Perhaps after the kids have grown and moved away. I dunno.

pissnapalm, I thought you were in Vietnam, judging by your handle. What gives?

I just said gumban the other day and no one knew what I was talkin about! I have only ever called them that. I didnt know other people didnt! Also, "quad" (like ATV) they dont know down here. (in Atlanta Ga).
weird.

I lived in Pittsburgh for 7 years and moved to Philly and have lived here for 8. The other 3 years of my life were in Chicago but that was early years. The best years have been in Philly though those reasons include the Steelers winning the Super Bowl and other things. You ask the question would I move back.... My dad still has our season tickets, my first choice for a college to attend University of Pittsburgh, my whole family lives there, and last but not least in anyway I love Pittsburgh sports. So in short yes I would move back and in a way I am from August to April and whenever I come back to see family. On the Pittsburghese my mother and fathers families grew up in the suburbs for anyone in Pittsburgh North Allegheny and Sewickly. So my grandparents have an Irish and Pittsburgh accent mix the oddest thing you will ever hear. Every relative that is older than me either speaks it all the time because they live there or in my uncles, fathers and one aunts case when they are home they talk like they haven't left. I have the ability to understand Pittsburghese though I can't speak it.

__________________
Before you can win a game, you have to not lose it.
Chuck Noll